If I had to sum up January in just one word this year, I guess it would be "cold". We've been keeping close to the wood stove, and burning up a rather alarming amount of firewood. There have been days when we thought there was something wrong with our lovely little stove, thinking it wasn't putting out much heat. It took a while, but we finally realized that it does just fine when the temperature doesn't go much below minus 20 degrees Celsius. We had lots of nights that were well below minus 30, and days that hung in around minus 25, and that's before the wind chill factor. We do have electric baseboards, and did have to leave a couple of them on in the downstairs rooms overnight. We found that if we let the house get too cold, we spend all day fighting to warm it up again.
Jet doesn't seem to even notice the cold, so he had us out everyday for the usual play times, and walks.
But there were a few times when we just had to cut the walks short a bit. As wrapped up as we were, with just our eyes, nose and cheeks bare, we could feel the biting wind on our skin, and worried about Jet's ears and paws getting too cold.
In between the cold spells, we did have our usual January thaw, which lowered the snow bank levels, brought rain, and freezing rain, and left our roadway rather an icy mess. Wood stove ashes do a marvellous job of providing traction on ice though, so after spreading them on one of the hills, I was able to get the truck out after only one or two mishaps of getting stuck!
There has been some carnage on the river - one night something took a deer down - either a coyote or a wolf I suppose, leaving the remains of the deer on the other side of the river. It's "Nature's way" as they say, and there is no doubt it provided crows, ravens and bald eagles with a bit of a feast for more than a few days. In the spirit of photography, I placed a deck chair in the snow along our shoreline, and waited for a while to see if there would be any opportunities to photograph a bald eagle. I must say that I did have a few anxious moments, sitting all alone in the woods, when I started to think about what it was exactly that took a deer down....but decided I wouldn't worry.
There were no signs of the bald eagle while I sat there so I left, and no sooner did I leave than all the birds returned. They seemed to know I was in the area and must have been hanging around nearby.
January is always a good time to try out some new recipes, so I spent some time in the kitchen, trying my hand at making my own pizza crust, hummus, and a big pot of posole with pork. I still have rather a lot of dried chiles stored away, as well as an enormous bag of dried blue corn, so decided it was time to use some supplies up. Next on the list will be hand made corn tortillas. Rob thinks we should figure out how to make wood oven bagels, but I haven't got that adventurous yet! I am once again able to pick up my monthly order from the local food co-op due to a change in pick up location, so I was happy to get some organic Highland beef for chili too. Turning the oven on seems to warm up the kitchen a bit more, so it was nice to spend some time close to the stove, and we now have a good supply of meals in our freezer again.
Rob has been working hard the last few weeks on window designs, sending out requests for quotes, and getting ideas from my brother Mike who, because of his job, knows a whole lot about windows! Which is lucky for us...
It's been a bit of a struggle and the program Rob uses to do the drawings crashes an awful lot, which doesn't help. But there is also (as always!) a lot to think about. How the windows will look from both the inside and outside. What size they should be and what shape. How many there should be. Which ones should open. How they should open. (Open in, open out, open vertically, open horizontally, or even tilt!) Double glazed vs. triple glazed. Heat transfer, U factor, Solar gain... Wood vs. fibreglass vs vinyl.. Inside colour, outside colour .... I don't think I will ever think of windows in the same way again.
When we first moved into the cabin I was thrilled to just have windows that opened easily, and in fact I'm still amazed that I can just crank them open whenever I need to.
Rob made them all by hand, and would love to do that again, but it would take way too long, and really isn't practical this time if we ever want get this house built! In the dome the windows he built were a bit more interesting and I loved them, but they were difficult to open and close and I couldn't reach most of them to ever clean them.
Every decision we make about windows, also seems to affect the cost. Rob did manage to get the cost down for most of them, although in the end he actually added windows and increased the size of some so that cost went up! But I think he's done a good job, and we'll be happy with them. The views are stunning on the building site, and we want to be able to enjoy those views through the windows as much as possible. This will be my view from the kitchen!
We didn't venture out much in January, but did go to an open house at a local farm, complete with a wagon ride - and picked up delicious rainbow carrots, and potatoes, and Feta and Tomme cheese made from sheep's milk. The farm is off grid and we had an enjoyable time learning about their unique cold cellar, and looking around a bit.
Next time we should bring our snow shoes as there were trails available, and it is in a beautiful spot. They also have a yurt!
We hadn't been in one since visiting our friends Ross and Hanne in New Mexico for sound healing and shamanic healing sessions. Sadly our dear friend Ross passed away after a brief and unexpected illness in January. He was an amazing man; healer, teacher, artist, friend, and so much more....His passing has made both of us spend some time looking in, and looking out....missing him, yet ever aware of our joy and gratitude for knowing him.
Being outdoors is always healing, so we took some time out for a bit of a snowshoe hike, and for some gentle walks around. There is a lovely spot on the edge of the river with a perfect log for sitting on. Under the shelter of the trees, on a sunny day I can sit comfortably for quite a while, listening to the silence. The river is almost frozen over, so I can no longer hear it. But if I sit for a while, I will hear the drum of the pileated woodpecker, the scolding of a red squirrel, and the sound of the raven. So it isn't all that silent after all.
We are cautious and stay close to the edge of the river, but it really does seem to be quite frozen this year. Here there is a lovely natural clearing next to the river's edge. The previous owners of the property used to clear the snow, and their kids would skate here in the winter!
On the other side of the tree line (above Rob's head) is our new house site.
On the day we were out there were a few animal tracks across the river, but not many. Two days later it looked like the deer were dancing all over the river.
When we were snowshoeing we discovered deep deer trails through the woods too.
And circling high above us one day, some ravens and that bald eagle!
Back at the cabin we load up our porch with a bit more firewood, settle in next to the wood stove, and Rob gets back to the house plans. Next on our list is to decide on the metal roof colour and exterior house colour, as we need to know what colour to order for the exterior of the windows. In the spirit of our times in New Mexico, I would love to have a turquoise roof. But in looking through some photos online, we are surprised to see that we both like a photo of a house with a rough grey wood siding, and grey window exteriors. Perched on rock and surrounded by the trees, the setting is similar to ours, and the house has a peaceful sort of feeling to it. Both of us like the way it blends in naturally with the surroundings. Of course, we would have to add some colour in somehow here and there! Maybe some kind of funky accent colour. But I am no longer sure that the turquoise roof is right. More decisions....! I know though that Rob is anxious to get the windows ordered, and to get back to working in his little closed-in area on the porch. He's been trying to work on some braces but comes back to work inside when it gets too chilly out there.
On a cold winter day Leon reminds us that sometimes the best thing to do is curl up in a cozy spot of sunshine. He's 18 years old, and failing a bit, but still purrs as loud as ever, especially when he's comfy and warm!
As much as Jet loves the outdoors, he seems to take a cue from Leon.
I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. Suddenly we have found ourselves into the first week of January, with Christmas and New Year's celebrations already over. Although we celebrate the season pretty simply, we both look forward to Christmas, and always enjoy the festivities. We still hang on to some of our favourite traditions; playing our favourite Christmas music, (Charles Brown Cool Christmas Blues, Jethro Tull Christmas Album, and various other bluesy Christmas albums we have picked up over the years) hanging up the Christmas cards we receive, calling some friends and family. Eating mince meat tarts, and Christmas shortbread. Stocking the fridge with the ingredients for some special meals. We both agreed though, to opt out of the interior Christmas tree tradition again this year. Space in the cabin is just too tight. However, I came home from work one night to the wonderful glow of Christmas lights outside the cabin. Rob had decided to surprise me by hanging some lights on one of the trees outside of the kitchen. (It was rather cold to go back outside to try to take a photo so I took it from inside the kitchen!) It was a beautiful surprise, and lent a nice festive air to the rest of the season.
As we have done for the past few years, Rob and I agreed to each buy the other two good books for Christmas. We are so happy to have found a wonderful independent bookstore in Arnprior. We shopped together, so we were both concerned that we had picked the same books - but we didn't!
I must say though, that Rob's favourite gift this season was probably the helicopter his sweet Mom sent him. Yes - a remote control helicopter. Jet was not nearly as impressed with it, when Rob started it up and it flew into Jet's nose. Rob says he needs a large interior space to fly it in - and this cabin is clearly not large. When he suggested he could maybe try it out in the yoga studio I go to - well obviously I had to say no.... but it was tempting!
Leading up to Christmas, Rob continued to try to build an enclosed space on the porch so that he would have some where to work on some smaller timbers this winter. But the weather just did not co-operate, and we were hit with such cold temperatures that he wasn't able to do much outdoors. We've had a lot of nights in the minus 20 to minus 30 range already! He did manage to finally get something built, but it took a while. Just before New Year's things warmed up a bit, and Rob moved some timbers down in preparation. Working outside in the snow was a still a bit of a challenge, and he found he got cold and wet pretty quickly. The "warm spell" didn't last long, and we were back into very cold weather in no time. By New Year's Eve they were forecasting lows of minus 32, with wind chills well below that.
The timbers were put away again until the next "thaw".
The little wood stove we have in the cabin does an amazing job, but we did find that at really cold temperatures we were struggling a bit, and had to finally turn on some electric heat to help keep the chill off. We woke up one morning to a rather cold temperature of 8 degrees in the house. Now some of you may remember that when I first lived with Rob I used to complain when my shampoo froze in the Dome, so perhaps I have become a little soft if I can't tolerate 8 degrees now! Luckily I have a good supply of long johns, and a good thick warm wool sweater, so I can get warm even when the cabin feels a bit chilly.
Despite the cold though, we still find ourselves outdoors several times a day. The beauty of the woods and the river beckons no matter what the temperature is. The river changes daily, and we like to walk along the edge to see the changes in the flow, the ice that gathers in beautiful formations, and the few ducks that cling to the remaining open water these days.
The open areas are slowly disappearing though. I'm pretty sure that last year we could still see a small channel of flowing water in front of the cabin, but by New Year's this year, there was no visible channel in this area.
Every day we also walk over to the building site. We are a little nervous about the lack of sunlight in December, as we will be depending on it for our solar powered electricity! So we walk down to the site at various times during the day to see whether or not the sun would be hitting the future solar panels location.
When there is no sun (and that has been a pretty frequent occurrence the last several weeks!) we simply walk down to the site, and look around and think about the house, the river, the beauty of the land.... Sunshine or not, every day we also walk around the property, through the woods, up the roadways, and along the paths.
We see lots of tracks in the snow; fox, deer, wild turkeys, snowshoe hares, but with Jet along we don't see a lot of wildlife. We do scare up a grouse sometimes, and there are always red squirrels in the cedars, no matter how cold it is!
Rob has been busy with more research the last few weeks. Now is the time to figure out a lot of the details, and we have to make decisions about some of the items we will need this year. The brand of wood boiler, the sizes, style and placement of windows and doors, the final finish for the concrete floor, the type of metal roof, well the list goes on and on. He spent a pretty good amount of time too, working out how he is going to assemble the timbers and raise them. There's a lot to think about!
I'm glad we were able to spend more time living here first before we jump into building the new house. It gives us time to get a feel for the all of the seasons, and sometimes make adjustments to our plans. This week we noticed that we have lost any of the passive solar gain in the upstairs rooms in the cabin. The snow and ice slid down the roof, then froze again, blocking out most of the sun that used to shine through the windows and warm the rooms. I don't think we will have the same issue in the new house, but it's something to think about.
We also have a solar panel that we are testing, and we have come to realize how often it has to have the snow removed from it! Then of course we are also reminded that we have to think about where the snow falls, where it will slide down the roof and pile up, and where to put it when we shovel or plow. Every season brings a little more knowledge, and something else to consider. In the middle of summer it's too easy to forget about things like snow!
Well, maybe for me - I'm not the one out plowing...
As another festive season ends, we are both looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine here in the cabin. We had a lovely couple of weeks; good food, good wine, and a bit of time to relax after the stress of concrete pads, septic systems, well digging etc. It's time now though to tuck away the Christmas cards, and Christmas bottle stoppers for another year, and get back to work on the house plans!
When I was looking at the photos I wanted to use in this post, I was surprised to see that there was no snow on the ground when our concrete pads were poured. It seems like we've had snow on the ground for weeks already. But the photos are proof, that while it was pretty darned cold, the snow that had fallen earlier had definitely all melted away.
For two weeks we anxiously followed various weather report web sites, tracking storms and falling temperatures, and worrying that we were a bit too ambitious in thinking that we could get our concrete pads poured before winter arrived. But somehow we lucked out, and a little bit of warmer air arrived just in time for the pour, and lingered long enough to allow the concrete a couple of days to set properly.
I don't think either of us slept well the night before the pour. Rob was out on the highway by 7 a.m. to meet the pumping truck and to help guide him in. The concrete work team arrived shortly after, and because the truck was a bit late, the concrete trucks arrived around the same time. We were excited, but nervous. We were worried that the forms wouldn't hold, and although I was sure that Rob had put all the pipes in the right place, I must admit I was a little worried about the finality of encasing everything in concrete !
The pumping truck was quickly set up and positioned so it could reach both pads, but still allow the concrete trucks to attach themselves to the back of the truck to transfer the concrete. Then it pumped a nice big blat of concrete on the ground behind the house, in order to clear all the lines, before they started to fill the forms. I of course thought he had forgotten to move the pump and was about to fill the yard with concrete!
The truck driver (wearing the red hoodie) controlled the pump with a remote device that he carried around. Sometimes I think he was just having fun with the young guys who were hanging onto that pipe as he would jerk it around a lot!
They worked quickly to fill and spread the concrete, taking measurements of the levels all along to make sure everything was where it should be. The heavy flow of concrete did push the forms out a bit, but they held. Whew.
As more and more concrete filled in the forms they worked faster with their rakes. They make it look easy, like some kind of dance. But I tried raking some of the leftover concrete later on, and it's really hard work!
As they moved along the first pour (which was the house pad) one of them fired up the gas powered tamper, but it soon broke down. Rob tried to help fix it, but it looked like it was beyond repair.
Luckily they had brought along the wooden "manual" style tamper, so they had to use it instead. It's really hard work to bend over and use this one, and it doesn't do the same smooth job. But when they used the smoother/finisher it made it all look the same later on. This is going to be our finished floor in most of the rooms, so we want it to look good!
Once they finished the house pad pour they moved on to the workshop. They would periodically check the house pad concrete by lightly putting their foot on it to see if it was set enough for smoothing/polishing. Despite the slight bows in the forms, and the broken tamper, things seemed to be going pretty well. It was still colder out than promised, and I headed back to the house to warm up and add a few more layers on. I came back a short while later to watch the work on the workshop. Unfortunately, that's when we ran out of concrete. Ordering concrete is a bit tricky as whatever you order, you pay for, and it's yours. They don't take back unused concrete in the concrete trucks. So you sort of want to get the amount right! It's a bit difficult to guess how much you are short by, in the middle of a pour. We weren't short by much, but it was enough that we had to wait a while for more to be delivered.
When it arrived it was a bit different consistency, so hopefully this doesn't affect the floor in the workshop. There was also more than we needed. If we had known, we would have set up some concrete forms elsewhere around the house pad, for things like the pads for our future propane tanks. We will need front steps too, but couldn't prepare for that as there will be more fill added before we can build those. So, we looked around, spied our new rock wall, and opted to pour the remaining concrete around the rocks. Hopefully the concrete will help the rocks to stay in place a bit better as we did have concerns that they would move out. Here Rob gets to try his hand at pumping concrete!
It's not easy to hang on to, and I was worried he would go out over the rocks.
Once the pour was complete, we were probably all relieved. We watched the pumping truck fold up and prepare to leave. They insert a big ball in the end of the pump and it sucks it up and this cleans out the entire arm. Everything gets hosed down as well to ensure there is no remaining concrete anywhere. As they pointed out - tomorrow will be too late - it will have set everywhere! The concrete that is in the pump ALSO gets dumped, but we had them put it in an area that needed some fill. I guess it is fairly organic at least... Later on when it was still soft, Rob went back out with the tractor and scooped up and broke up the concrete where it had been dumped, leaving most of the concrete around the rocks though.
As the concrete firmed up slowly, they were able to start the smoothing process. They kicked off their big boots, replaced them with clean sneakers and fired up the smoothing machines. Then they walked these machines all around the pad. Waited half an hour, did it again, waited half an hour, did it again....They make this part look easy too, but it isn't.
While they smoothed the surface, we walked around and admired their work, the sun broke out, and the air began to warm up a bit at last. It was really amazing to see our house floors begin to take shape! Rob had worked hard the last few weeks to get ready for this part.
I loved the patterns in the concrete, but after each smoothing session they slowly disappeared. After a long day, the concrete team gave the pads one last polish, and then cleaned everything up and went home. Rob and I went home too, but couldn't resist going out for one more look before it got dark.
It was pretty amazing to be able to stand on the concrete, and now be at the finished height of our new floors. Suddenly I could imagine that I was in the kitchen, the dining room.....
We went to sleep that night feeling pretty relieved that this part was done. Somehow, I thought that would be it for this year. Of course I forgot all about the fact that the concrete has to have lines cut into it, which Rob did the next day. And I forgot about the curing, and that it's best if the concrete stays wet and warm. So we had to keep checking the weather forecast, and when we heard it was going to get cold, Rob covered it with straw and plastic. Rob had read that if we just put plastic down directly on the concrete, it might affect our acid stain finish when we apply it next year. I have visions of the straw leaving marks too, but that would be kind of cool maybe!
We had a couple of extra bales of straw so left them there for now, but I can use them for mulch next spring.
And THEN I thought that was it for this year, but of course - it isn't! Rob has been busy ever since, catching up on all the things that didn't get done in the fall - servicing the tractor, preparing for winter, and working on the next stage of the house plans. As well, he decided to try rigging up a small insulated room on the porch so that he can work on some of the smaller timbers if it's warm enough during the winter.
We took one afternoon off though to clear a new walking path. It's our goal to have a few loops through the woods, and I had hoped that I could simply trim some branches to clear the way, but the recent storms have dropped a lot of large trees in the areas we want to walk. With the help of the tractor we were able to clear one path for now, and it's lovely. It leads to a different area of the river.
We climbed up through the woods on another path that we would like to clear and were stunned to see how many trees came down in the last wind storm. We will have to leave that area for another time, it's going to take a bit of work!
As always, we had plans to get a few more things done outside. But the temperatures kept dropping, and then the snow arrived.
Now it's time to get ourselves sorted out a bit here in the cabin. We've had to bring in anything that will be adversely affected by the cold temperatures, and are still trying to sort out our collection of hats, mitts, scarves and winter coats. Every time Rob plows, or we walk the dog, we have a new collection of things that are wet and need to put somewhere to dry. On the plus side, it adds a bit of much needed moisture to the air !
Christmas is fast approaching, and I think we are both looking forward to some quiet nights by the fire, playing our favourite Christmas tunes, and curling up with a good book. We have a lot of research to do over the next few months, but I think we could both use the next couple of weeks to relax a bit. I've stocked up on some books from the local library, and some new fabric paints just arrived in the mail. And if you had told me 2 years ago, that two weeks before Christmas I would even be thinking about reading and painting, I would have not have believed it!! What a lovely change this has been for us....
Oh, and Jet says don't forget we have to go play in the snow too.....
Although even Jet has been lying closer to the wood stove the last few nights!
I would like to start off this month's blog with a big thank you to my big brother for taking the time to email us this month, and sending along some much needed words of encouragement. As the weather rapidly deteriorated, and we worried that we had run out of time to get the concrete pads poured, and began to wonder whether we had accomplished much over the year, he sent us the most wonderful email. In it he reminded us of our accomplishments and suggested we take the time to congratulate ourselves for all that we had done in the last several months. It's easy to think that things aren't progressing when you are not quite as far along as you had hoped, but it was a good reminder to us to take a good look back, which we did. I sure love my big brother!!
I keep a short daily journal, and so I turned back the pages to this time last year and read out loud the daily goings on, and of course, he was right. This time last year, we had three weeks to vacate our home of 35 years as we had sold it, and Rob was busy packing up the entire house, driving back and forth, and getting all of our belongings into storage.
In the year since then we finished sealing off the pole barn where Rob would be carving the timbers. We got the last of the gravel down onto the roads into the cabin and the new house site. We spent the winter planning and designing the new house, while keeping the wood stove going and the cabin warm. We did some work on the inside of the cabin, and we both took time to visit our families. We ordered our lumber, had the excitement of seeing our timbers arrive, and got a good number of them carved and ready. We cleared the lot, removed much of the brush from the clearing, and installed the well and septic system. We levelled and filled the building site, prepared the forms for both the house and the workshop, installed the plumbing pipes, filled areas with gravel, put down the mesh and rebar ... well, I will let the photos from the latest endeavours tell some of that story. In between we took a bit of time with old friends, made new friends, tried our hands at snowshoeing, berry and apple picking, and kayaking. I started a new part time job, and a volunteer job. I've been practising yoga and learning how to make bread. We have indeed managed to do quite a lot!
At the end of last month's blog, Rob had just finished laying down and bracing the forms in preparation for the concrete pour for the house, and installed the plumbing pipes. He then had to do the same for the workshop, (which will hold our solar panels on the roof once it is completed). Once the forms were in place for the house and workshop, and the plumbing pipes all put into place, and inspected, Rob was able to lay down a layer of plastic and installed 3 " pink foam board in the bases. He filled the interiors with gravel, in small incremental layers so that each layer could be compacted properly each time. He left a "moat" all around that will allow for deeper concrete to be filled at all of the edges.
There was a lot of manual work done with adding the gravel, raking it flat, measuring levels, compacting, measuring levels, topping up the gravel.... I was around to help a bit with that part!
The house also has 5 holes hollowed out that will hold extra concrete for supports for the timbers.
Oops, there are only four here. Rob discovered that his plans actually contained five, but the drawing program only printed off four, so he had to go back and do a fifth one.
After compacting everything down, and measuring the levels again to make sure everything was where it should be, our dear friend Bob came over and helped to move and bend and install the rebar and wire mesh. Some jobs just go WAY better when there are more people. We were very grateful for his help.
We tried different methods of bending the rebar. It worked well enough when we tried to bend it by using the tractor, but in the end we did it by hand using a metal pipe. We measured where the bend needed to be, and then Bob and I stood on the rebar, while Rob slipped the metal pipe over, and torqued it up by hand. No photos of that process as all three of us were involved with the bending !
The tractor was also used to pick up the wire mesh, and store it until we were ready for it.
Not everybody finds a photo of rebar to be that exciting, but I found the whole process to be pretty interesting as we tried to fit it in according to building code, which dictates the spacing, the overlaps, etc.!
The large format mesh was not easy to move around. Once it was laid down, each piece had to be attached to the next one by wire, and then plastic "chairs" were inserted below the rebar and mesh to raise them up a little, so that when the concrete is poured, the rebar and mesh is at the correct height.
Pink foam board had to be installed on the insides of all the edges, and then trimmed to the correct height. Then Rob sprayed foam into a lot of the cracks to make sure everything would be well sealed.
We had another inspection and learned we needed a bit more rebar in the corners, but everything else was just fine. Rob then installed the Pex tubing that will run the hydronic heat, later crimping the edges, and running a pressure test to make sure there were no leaks. Installing the Pex wasn't easy due to the cold weather, and he rigged up a gizmo that would help it to unwind without kinking.
There was a lot of time spent looking at drawings, and making changes, and thinking a lot about things like not having the hydronic heat running under the kitchen cupboards, but making sure it was running in the areas where the water pipes come in. Rob thinks a lot about the details in the middle of the night ! And there were lots of details to think about - once that concrete is poured it's pretty hard to make changes.
He called the concrete pouring team to say we were ready - and we learned that everyone here pretty much goes hunting during the first week of deer hunting season, and there would be no work done until they returned. In the end, this proved to be a good thing, as there were lots of adjustments to be made to the site, and it gave Rob a bit more time to do it and to think about everything a bit more. However, the weather was getting colder, and we were beginning to worry about it being too cold. Rob tried dropping a thermometer probe down some of the pipes to see what the temperature was sitting at, and we bought black plastic to put over the site to try warm things up if needed.
It didn't help when Rob was in the middle of laying the Pex and the first snow arrived either!
The second snowfall wasn't much better.
Not to mention the heavy wind storms, and two power outages.
The heavy winds brought down a number of trees and they needed to be dealt with. They rarely blow down and land in a convenient location - more often than not they hang somewhere up high and provide us with some difficulty in getting them down safely! We've dealt with some of the more urgent ones, the rest will have to wait.
This post seems a bit different from my past ones. I think there is an edge to it, a tinge of worry, or a touch of tiredness. The "concrete slab" building has been a tad stressful, and stretched out perhaps a bit longer than planned. I feel like we have both been living it and breathing it for the past several weeks. However, I still try to take some time out each day for a good long walk, and take my camera.
We play with Jet three times a day and take him for good long walks as well. Sometimes, I just sit - either at the building site, or at the edge of the river and enjoy the view.
The concrete pour should happen later this week. (Weather permitting and fingers crossed!) Then I think we will relax a little, and take a good deep breath, and settle in for the winter. Our firewood is stacked, our winter coats and boots have been pulled from storage and are piled in the cabin. We are both ready for some quiet walks in the woods, and some time to think about the next step of this building adventure.
